Jack Ma says stop looking for manufacturing jobs

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said people should stop looking to manufacturing to drive economic growth. Ma called on leaders to embrace the promise of advances like artificial intelligence to span whole new industries, Bloomberg reports. “Two hundred years ago when the steam machine came, people started thinking the steam machine is going to take a lot of jobs,” Ma said, speaking at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York. “Because of artificial intelligence, because of the robots, manufacturing is no longer the main engine for jobs.” Instead, small businesses using the internet to extend their markets will lead economic growth this century, Ma said. The message ties neatly into Alibaba’s business plan, which hinges on making the Chinese company the go-to online marketplace for entrepreneurs. Ma’s million-job plan for the US centers around helping small businesses navigate and sell into the Chinese market, where Alibaba says it has already contributed to the creation of 30 million jobs.